Dirty Jobs

- Season 1

(2005)

Mike Rowe assumes the responsibilities of a Garbage Collector as he takes to the streets of San Francisco's Chinatown. After carrying several tons of garbage down the narrow corridors and steep staircases of Chinatown, Mike moves onto Recycle Central...

Mike Rowe steps into the shoes of a sewer inspector in San Francisco, and enlists a disaster clean up crew after a Brooklyn toilet explodes from a sewer backup. He then joins up with a demolition company where he works as part of a deconstruction crew.

Mike Rowe steps into the shoes of an Iowa pig farmer where he faces the challenges of feeding and cleaning up after hundreds of dirty pigs. Then Mike learns how to care for a new litter of piglets, and artificially inseminates a female pig.

Mike Rowe gets dirty as an Iowa chick sexer. Every Friday there are over 80,000 chicks born at the Murray McMurray Hatchery and it's Mike's job to sort the boys from the girls by the end of the day when they're shipped out to farms around the country.

Mike catches crabs, processes them then eats them which wasn't easy after seeing them processed. Next he goes into the horse shoe business and shoes a horse while it does it's business. Finally he visits a house that is more home to rats, roaches and snakes than people.

Mike spends time with the Clear Hills Honey beekeepers in Oregon where he learns to corral bees in their hives and then extract & process honey.

Mike Rowe rolls up his sleeves and gets filthy dirty as he tackles the profession of hot tar roofing a church rooftop that needs to be replaced.

Mike visits the Big Island and an organic family coffee bean farm. Starting from dispersing the fertilizer, he then picks, gathers, wet-processes, drys, and bags the green coffee beans. Then he unzips the bag and a pound is poured into the roaster, cooled, then bagged for sale. He then enjoys a cup of coffee 12 hours in the making. Mike visits the Pacific coast to feed seals that are in bad shape, releasing them at the National Seashore. Mike visits an ostrich farm, wrangling and capturing to carry in a trailer. What could go wrong?

Mike Rowe gets a taste of what it's like to work as a Zookeeper at the San Francisco Zoo. He then teams up with Vermont cheese makers to learn how to turn four thousand gallons of milk into world famous cheese, and mixes volcanic ash mud baths.

This week Mike is in Louisiana catching some shrimp but mostly other strange creatures that don't get along with him well. Then it's off to the swamp for craw fish. And while he's out in the wild he might as well bring in some illegally dumped tires for recycling.

Mike Rowe steps into the shoes of a cobb home builder and teams up with the Bee man to evict a swarm of angry bees hidden inside a church building. He recovers grease at a Mexican restaurant and learns to convert cooking oil into gasoline alternative.

Mike Rowe teams up with a pet groomer and is responsible for preparing special outfits prior to their departure. He works at a Hawaiian pharmaceutical plant that specializes in growing green algae. Mike Rowe gets dirty at a charcoal factory.

The tricks of the trade are taught to Mike at the Chimney Sweeping Safety Institute. He travels to Canada to dive into frigid water for sunken logs which will be made into expensive furniture. Mike's hired by a scrap metal recycling plant to sort cans.

A "greatest hits" episode with a compilation of Mike's dirtiest jobs involving animals: Pig Farmer, Chick Sexer, Pet Groomer, Horse Breeder at the Babcock Ranch and Ostrich Farmer.

A "greatest hits" episode with a compilation of Mike's dirtiest water-related jobs: Shark Catcher/Tagger, Golf-Ball Diver for the Golf Ball Depot, Oyster Harvester, Crawfish Catcher, Catfish Noodler and Shrimper.

A "greatest hits" episode compiling dirty jobs Mike has done in previous episodes featuring insects: Exterminator, Crab Fisherman, Honey Harvester at the Clear Hills Honey apiary, Bee Man, Worm Poop Rancher in Sarasota and Bat-Poop Collector.